Saturday, May 10, 2003
Virginia Postrel is blogging about Bill McKibben's new book,Enough, which I'm sure it deserves. I know I need to read books like this, and Fukuyama's , but time's short, especially if these guys have their way and we remain condemned to the traditional "three score and ten." Ironic, huh? If I had more time, I'd be more likely to read what these bio-Luddites have to say. At any rate, Virgina's point is to criticize the compliments these bio-conservatives get for being "brave" in "standing up" to the prospect of human genetic engineering:
"This is an abuse of language. McKibben's book may be sincere, forceful, impassioned. It may be well written. But it is not brave. It will offend absolutely no one who matters in Bill McKibben's world. To the contrary, it will reinforce the righteous self-image of those who promote his career. By writing this book, McKibben can count on attention and praise. That doesn't make him a coward. But neither does it make him brave--or the reviewers brave for praising him."
If you want to see brave, check this out.
Fukuyama's conversion to bio-conservatism is particularly irksome to me, since his previous book, "Trust" seemed like such a brilliant book, and one to which I still often refer. Oh well, just shows to go you -- even really smart people can be dead wrong about really important things.
Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds did mention this blog! I guess I'm famous now.
posted by Greg 9:24 PM
